Isaac Asimov
The closer to the truth, the better the lie, and the truth itself, when it can be used, is the best lie.Collection: Lying
I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.Collection: Believe
Life is a journey, but don't worry, you'll find a parking spot at the end.Collection: Life
It is almost impossible to think of something no one has thought of before, but it is always possible to add different frills.Collection: Thinking
If I am right, then (religious fundamentalists) will not go to Heaven, because there is no Heaven. If they are right, then they will not go to Heaven, because they are hypocrites.Collection: Religious
The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."Collection: Mean
In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.Collection: Life
Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer should be replaced by a computer.Collection: Teacher
Feminine intuition? Is that what you wanted the robot for? You men. Faced with a woman reaching a correct conclusion and unable to accept the fact that she is your equal or superior in intelligence, you invent something called feminine intuition.Collection: Men
Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers?Collection: Life
Where any answer is possible, all answers are meaningless.Collection: Science
My feeling is, quite simply, that if there is a God, He has done such a bad job that he isn't worth discussing.Collection: Jobs
While he lives, he must think; while he thinks, he must dream.Collection: Dream
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.Collection: People
There are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass.Collection: Happy Endings
I figure that if God actually does exist, he is big enough to understand an honest difference of opinion.Collection: Differences
Tell me why the stars do shine, Tell me why the ivy twines, Tell me what makes skies so blue, And I'll tell you why I love you. Nuclear fusion makes stars to shine, Tropisms make the ivy twine, Raleigh scattering make skies so blue, Testicular hormones are why I love you.Collection: Stars
To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.Collection: Beautiful
Science is uncertain. Theories are subject to revision; observations are open to a variety of interpretations, and scientists quarrel amongst themselves. This is disillusioning for those untrained in the scientific method, who thus turn to the rigid certainty of the Bible instead. There is something comfortable about a view that allows for no deviation and that spares you the painful necessity of having to think.Collection: Science
Isn't it sad that you can tell people that the ozone layer is being depleted, the forests are being cut down, the deserts are advancing steadily, that the greenhouse effect will raise the sea level 200 feet, that overpopulation is choking us, that pollution is killing us, that nuclear war may destroy us - and they yawn and settle back for a comfortable nap. But tell them that the Martians are landing, and they scream and run.Collection: Running
Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world.Collection: Change
I am the beneficiary of a lucky break in the genetic sweepstakes.Collection: Lucky
The history of science is full of revolutionary advances that required small insights that anyone might have had, but that, in fact, only one person did.Collection: Might
The essential building block is...the true love that is impossible to define for those who have never experienced it and unnecessary to define for those who have.Collection: Block
Before another century is done it will be hard for people to imagine a time when humanity was confined to one world, and it will seem to them incredible that there was ever anybody who doubted the value of space and wanted to turn his or her back on the Universe.Collection: Future
It is the chief characteristic of the religion of science that it works.Collection: Characteristics
It has always been my ambition to die in harness with my head face down on a keyboard and my nose caught between two of the keys.Collection: Ambition
The peace and joy of the Christmas season was marred by a proclamation of a general strike of all the military forces of the world. Panic reigns in the hearts of all the patriots of every persuasion. Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all-time low over the world.Collection: Peace
Unfortunately, in many cases, people who write science fiction violate the laws of nature, not because they want to make a point, but because they don't know what the laws of nature are.Collection: Writing
Scientists expect to be improved on and corrected; they hope to beCollection: Scientist
One thought that occurs to me is that men will continue to withdraw from nature in order to create an environment that will suit them better.Collection: Men
The temptation was great to muster what force we could and put up a fight. It's the easiest way out, and the most satisfactory to self-respect--but, nearly invariably, the stupidest.Collection: Fighting
There is no right to deny freedom to any object with a mind advanced enough to grasp the concept and desire the state. -(from "The Bicentennial Man) story)Collection: Men
Fifty years," I hackneyed, "is a long time." "Not when you're looking back at them," she said. "You wonder how they vanished so quickly.Collection: Years
There are many aspects of the universe that still cannot be explained satisfactorily by science; but ignorance implies only ignorance that may someday be conquered. To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.Collection: Ignorance
There is no one so insufferable as a person who gives no other excuse for a peculiar action than saying he had been directed to it in a dream.Collection: Dream
I don't expect to live forever, nor do I repine over that, but I am weak enough to want to be remembered forever. - Yet how few of those who have lived, even of those who have accomplished far more than I have, linger on in world memory for even a single century after deathCollection: Memories
People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence. They are far too ready to dismiss it and to build arcane structures of extremely rickety substance in order to avoid it. I, on the other hand, see coincidence everywhere as an inevitable consequence of the laws of probability, according to which having no unusual coincidence is far more unusual than any coincidence could possibly be.Collection: Science
This idea [standardized time zones] was first advanced and fought for by Sandford Fleming of Canada and Charles F. Dowd of the United States. I mention them chiefly because like so many benefactors of mankind they have been rewarded by total obscurity.Collection: Time Zones
Science is complex and chilling. The mathematical language of science is understood by very few. The vistas it presents are scary-an enormous universe ruled by chance and impersonal rules, empty and uncaring, ungraspable and vertiginous. How comfortable to turn instead to a small world, only a few thousand years old, and under God's personal; and immediate care; a world in which you are His peculiar concern.Collection: God
Having reached 451 books as of now doesn't help the situation. If I were to be dying now, I would be murmuring, "Too bad! Only four hundred fifty-one." (Those would be my next-to-last words. The last ones will be: "I love you, Janet.") [They were. -Janet.]Collection: Book
Author's Notes: This story starts with section 6. This is not a mistake. I have my own subtle reasoning. So, just read, and enjoy.Collection: Mistake
Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.Collection: Cutting
Naturally, there's got to be a limit for I don't expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.Collection: Long
However, I continue to try and I continue, indefatigably, to reach out. There’s no way I can single-handedly save the world or, perhaps, even make a perceptible difference – but how ashamed I would be to let a day pass without making one more effort.Collection: Motivational
Today’s science fiction is tomorrow’s science fact.Collection: Facts
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.Collection: Hilarious
There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.Collection: Humanity
The law of conservation of energy tells us we can’t get something for nothing, but we refuse to believe it.Collection: Energy